Lionel Maltese

Party time: recreation rituals in the world of B2B

Abstract We examine the role of business parties in business markets: why do B2B companies spend such large amounts of money to sponsor events meant for public consumption, such as sporting events, when most of their activity involves selling to other organisations? Drawing from extensive qualitative fieldwork in the world of tennis tournaments, we detail the specific universe of parties that happen backstage, between companies sponsoring these events. This context helps illuminate the critical role of business parties in business networks. Far from being mere recreation at the company’s expense, business parties are important opportunities for executives to develop and manage their relationships. We show that a business party functions as a particular kind of ritual by creating a distinct universe with its own language, gestures, and other modes of interaction. Summary statement of contribution Our theoretical contribution to the literature on relationship marketing is to detail the unifying function of business parties in local business markets, where relationships with a variety of organisations are key to a company’s success. Our methodological contribution is to illustrate the relevance of anthropological approaches and concepts, such as rituals, to the world of B2B.

The role of perceived brand personality in promotion effectiveness and brand equity development of professional sports teams

In the highly saturated sports industry where sport teams represent a complex offering loaded with intangible and tangible attributes, it is important to implement appropriate marketing strategies that will ultimately contribute to the development of strong brand equity. In this paper, the authors focused on the relationship between brand variables and marketing activities on the development of brand equity. More specifically, the purpose of this paper is to study the impact of brand personality on the evaluation of marketing promotional activities and the impact on the brand equity.,Respondents (2,400) were recruited through an online survey and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.,The survey revealed that the congruence between the brand personality and the promotional activities has a positive impact on its evaluation and on brand equity. In addition, the results showed that consumers who consider the financial strength of the team as an important factor evaluate more positively the value of congruent and incongruent promotional activities.,Brand managers should maintain consistency between their brand personality and their promotional activities in order to maintain and increase their brand equity.,The results contribute to the literature by investigating the impact of brand personality on the evaluation of promotional activities. Also, it examines an important factor (financial consciousness) that could influence how fans react in front of an incongruent promotional activity. This research brings a better understanding of the impact of brand personality on marketing strategies and brand equity.

Managing and Modeling the Combination of Resources in Professional Sporting Events

With a view towards integrating the Business Model concept into Resource-Based thinking, this research paper questions the concept with respect to its potential for formalizing a firm’s resource arrangement and control methods. The clinical study of three cases of international sporting event organization (Roland Garros, BNP Paribas Masters and Open13) enables a comparison of Business Models which rely on the same pool of resources but which structure and manage them differently. The main result identified in the context of an unstable sports environment, is the importance of such organizations’ aptitude to deploy and control resources which have been built up with certain stakeholders. Beyond the comparison of different Business Models within a similar environment, an empirical sequential approach for building up and managing a firm’s assets is suggested. The analysis of the development of each Business Model also enables us to understand how strategies for limiting the dependence of an organization on the reputation of its main suppliers are rolled out.

Toward a Better Understanding of Crowded and Scarce Sporting Events: Do Fans think as much as they Feel?

Recent studies (Tombs and Mc Coll-Kennedy, 2003; Rosenbaum and Massaiah, 2007; Machleit et al., 2000, Eroglu, Machleit and Barr, 2005) underline the importance of considering different types of crowding (human versus spatial) when interpreting results on a crowd’s impact. They also insist on the potential moderating role of the service encounter and the values at stake (leisure versus utilitarian) (Eroglu, Machleit and Barr, 2005).

Managing E-Reputation and Key Stakeholders in the Context of Sport Expressive Organizations

Abstract Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative data collected in a professional sports organization from two key stakeholder groups, namely fans and owner/managers, this article investigates the perceived importance and management principles of reputation and e-reputation. It provides a better understanding of the challenges of managing e-reputation in highly expressive contexts (sports organizations) and proposes a model of e-reputation management in this specific context.

Management and Modelisation of the Combinations of Resources Applied to French Tennis Tournaments - Management et Modélisation des Combinaisons de Ressources : une Application au Cas des Tournois de Tennis Français

With a view towards integrating the Business Model concept into Resource-Based thinking, this research paper questions the concept with respect to its potential for formalizing a firm’s resource arrangement and control methods. The clinical study of three cases of international sporting event organization (Roland Garros, BNP Paribas Masters and Open13) enables a comparison of Business Models which rely on the same pool of resources but which structure and manage them differently. The main result identified in the context of an unstable sports environment, is the importance of such organizations’ aptitude to deploy and control resources which have been built up with certain stakeholders. Beyond the comparison of different Business Models within a similar environment, an empirical sequential approach for building up and managing a firm’s assets is suggested. The analysis of the development of each Business Model also enables us to understand how strategies for limiting the dependence of an organization on the reputation of its main suppliers are rolled out.

Building Reputation in China: A Case Study from the Sports Industry

In this article, we propose to study the case of the management of reputation when a sports company aims to penetrate the Chinese market. The sporting sector is an environment that suffers from strong instability as it is reliant upon sporting results. We intend to understand how sports organizations can exploit resources linked to reputation in order to develop a sustainable strategy in the Chinese market. On the basis of the case study of the Olympique Lyonnais Football Club, the leading football club in France, we propose a matrix that we use to analyze the mobilization of resources for the development of reputation in China.